Socrates Method Man by A. R. Culver

This is about the life and philosophy of Socrates. It also discusses his method of questioning to enlighten others.
If you are reading this for research that is fine, but if you steal this, I pity you. That means you do not have enough of a brain to make up a report yourself. I do not mind if you use this as a source or a place for ideas or whatever but taking whole paragraphs is plagiarism and will not be tolerated.

Socrates; More than just the method

Who was Socrates? Many people claim they know who he is, “The SocraticMethod Man, Duh!” Nevertheless, there is much more to Socrates then that. He was aconversationalist, a teacher, a philosopher, and a martyr among other things. Socrates wasnot just the dude that created the Socratic Method, but he was also the philosopher thatchanged western philosophy forever. Socrates was born in 469 B.C. to a stonemason and a midwife in Athens. He wasborn into a respectable but middle class family. During his youth, he was the pupil ofArchelaus and science fascinated him. Later on, however, he abandoned studying thephysical world to study what made him famous. He was sent off to war at age 38 as awell-equipped infantryman. How well he dealt with the horrors of the war was legendary.He would not complain and he shunned personal comforts. He strived through personaland physical hardships without murmuring. Some claim that he was so oblivious todanger around him that he would seem indifferent when people dropped dead aroundhim, even in a retreat. When he arrived back home from the war he refused to talk aboutit insisting that his friends tell him the more important matters like how the search fortruth was going. Socrates, at some point in time, did get married to a nagging womannamed Xanthippe and settled down and had some children. When Socrates’ father died,he gained a large enough inheritance to devote himself fully to philosophy. The life ofSocrates was somewhat interesting but very full. There is, however, a more interesting story in his life; how he developed theSocratic Method. A defining moment in Socrates’ life was when a friend informed himwhat the Oracle of Delphi said. She said that there was no man wiser than Socrates was.Socrates confirmed his friend’s story but refused to believe it. He questioned everyone hecould possibly question in the attempt to find a man wiser then himself. Later on, herealized what the Oracle meant; that he was superior not because of his wisdom butbecause of his knowledge of his own ignorance. From then on, he believed it was his dutyto question people from all walks of life about their knowledge and help them realizetheir own ignorance therefore making them wiser. Thus the Socratic Method was born. The Socratic Method does have a purpose. The basis is to question peoplerepeatedly, trying to make them admit the fact that they do not know everything and seethe truth. The repeated questioning can get frustrating because it frequently leads to dead-ends but Socrates still felt that something was accomplished, even when the questionslead nowhere. Some people jokingly theorize that Socrates developed this annoying andtedious method from his wife. There was also an aim to this seemingly uselessmethodology. Socrates attempted to aid individuals achieve a better understanding ofthemselves. This method also aimed at trying to understand things and becomingvirtuous. Socrates used the method to destroy the notion that humans comprehend theworld around them and utilized it to force people to accept their own ignorance. Hereasoned that those are keys steps to gaining true knowledge. This method has a deepermeaning then to just aggravate or bother someone. Socrates had an interesting relationship with the Sophists. The Sophists were aloose group of thinkers who taught wealthy Athenians how to argue effectively. Socratesfervently rebuked them for accepting money for their insights. Even though Plato workshard to clarify that Socrates was not a Sophist, sometimes it was hard to tell if Socrateswas one or not. He used the wordplay of the Sophists but he employed it in the pursuit oftruth instead of the pursuit of money. Socrates attempts throughout his life to expose theSophists as ‘lazy thinkers’ who make assumptions without careful assessment. Because ofhis frequent arguments with the Sophists, he was mistaken to be one himself. The mostnotable case of this was by Aristophanes. In Aristophanes play ‘The Clouds’, Socrates isportrayed as the head of an institute called ‘The Thinkery’ which teaches Sophists how totalk senselessly. Socrates is the supposed master of meaningless wordplay and ambiguousphraseology. The charges made against him in this play came back to bite him in his laterlife. Socrates had many encounters with the Sophists. Socrates’ philosophy is somewhat uncertain. Socrates believed that philosophywas a living and breathing subject that did not need to be written down, so he never wroteany of his own philosophies down. Most of our knowledge about Socrates comes fromhis pupil Plato. There is one problem with relying on Plato; he was a philosopher himself.Even though Plato had his own philosophies, it is believed that Plato is, for the most part,truthful about what Socrates believed. Socrates believed that the source of evil isignorance and an education makes people moral. He also thought that virtue is knowledgeand people are virtuous if they know the true definition of virtue. Socrates theorized thatthe soul was a combination of a person’s intellectual abilities and his character. Socratesalso theorized that conversing with the common man about important issues of life andvirtue are key to any life that has any merit. He strongly believed that ‘The unexaminedlife is not worth living.’ He would rather die than to abandon his principles. Socratesspeculated that the only opinion that matters is the opinion of someone who knows whathe is saying. Truth alone ought to be one’s basis for deciding something. As far ashistorians can tell, this is what Socrates believed. Socrates also conceived the notion that one should obey his state. Socratesreasoned that one ought never to do wrong and one should act righteously to live morally.Even when someone is wronged, it is immoral for him to wrong another. Socrates thenspeculated that since it is wrong to do wrong, it is also wrong to disobey the state. Thestate is like a parent to a child. When a child disobeys his parent, it is wrong. The waySocrates can justify his criticism of the state is that children grow up and make their owndecisions on what is right or wrong. Nevertheless, it is still wrong for an adult to disobeyhis parents. This conviction of obedience to the state is so strong that when Socrates’friends tried to ‘break him out’ of jail, he refused to leave because that would bedisobedience to the state. Socrates was a strong believer in this principle. Unarguably the most intriguing chapter of Socrates’ life was his death. This storystarts when Sparta defeats Athens and establishes an oligarchy of thirty tyrants, throwingdemocracy out the window. These tyrants purged the city, sparing the lives of only themost loyal to them. Many scholars believe that the tyrants spared Socrates because someof them were his former students. By associating with these tyrants, Socrates madehimself an enemy of democracy and a scapegoat for when democracy was restored. The charges made against Socrates were impiety and corruption of the youth.Convicting Socrates of impiety was effortless because he professed that the gods have tobe good or else they are not gods. This contradicted almost all of Greek Mythology.Charging this ‘method man’ with corruption of the youth was a different matter. It wasfiercely debated whether Socrates should be held responsible for the actions of his formerapprentices. Socrates himself did not help the matter any by telling the jury that he hasonly done good and was placed there to annoy the officials of Athens in order to createprogress. This angered the jury and they convicted him with the charges. They allowedSocrates to suggest his own punishment for him to show remorse and lessen his sentence.What Socrates suggested would be the nails in his coffin (if they had coffins in ancientGreece). Socrates said that he should receive the highest honors and get free food just likethe Olympian athletes. This infuriated the jury and they sentenced him to death. The final hours of Socrates were tense for everyone, except Socrates. His friendstried to get Socrates to escape but he refused because it would be disobedience to thestate. He talked to his closest friends about the immortality of the soul trying to comfortthem. Socrates faced his death with blatant unconcern. As his friends lamented andpleaded with him frantically, Socrates rebuked them for their ruckus. He drank thehemlock with eerie calm and died with dignity. In dieing instead of giving up philosophyand his search for the truth, he became the standard at which all philosophers from alleras are compared. Socrates died for what he believed in; he died a martyr’s death. Socrates was quite an interesting character. He goes from being a man of modestbeginnings, to a man of war, to a man of thought, to a man of senseless wordplay, andthen to a dead man. However, in death, Socrates became the man of his philosophy. Herefused to turn his back on his convictions and on philosophy. Socrates is someoneeveryone who believes sincerely in his own convictions must respect. Socrates was somuch more than the man who created the Socratic Method; he is the beginning of thewestern philosophy we recognize today. However, why is he mainly remembered as ‘TheMethod Man’?